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All about : Queen Elsa
=Queen Elsa = Introduction Queen Elsa, the "Snow Queen" of Arendelle, is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 53rd animated film Frozen. She is voiced primarily by Broadway actress and singer Idina Menzel. At the beginning of the film, she is voiced by Eva Bella as a young child and by Spencer Lacey Ganus as a teenager. Created by director Chris Buck, Elsa is loosely based on the title character of The Snow Queen, a Danish fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. In the Disney film adaption, she is introduced as the princess of the fictional Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle, heiress apparent to the throne, and the elder sister of Princess Anna (Kristen Bell). Elsa is scripted as having been born with an exceptionally strong magical ability to create and manipulate ice and snow. She inadvertently sends Arendelle into an eternal winter on the evening of her coronation. Throughout the film, she struggles first with controlling and concealing her abilities and then with liberating herself from her fears of unintentionally harming others, particularly her younger sister. The Snow Queen character, a villain in the original fairytale, proved difficult to adapt to film due to her transparent depiction. Several film executives, including Walt Disney, attempted to build on the character, and a number of scheduled film adaptions were shelved when they could not work out the character. Buck and his co-director, Jennifer Lee, were ultimately able to solve the dilemma by depicting Elsa and Anna as sisters. This led to Elsa being gradually rewritten as a sympathetic, misunderstood character. Elsa has enjoyed a largely positive reception from reviewers, who praised her complex characterization and vulnerability. Menzel was also widely praised for her vocal performance of Elsa, especially that of her performance of the song "Let It Go", with critics frequently calling her a "powerhouse". Along with Anna, Elsa is set to be inducted into the Disney Princess line-up, becoming the 13th official member. Magical Abilities Since Elsa is introduced as a young child at the beginning of the film, animators wanted the first glimpse of her powers to reflect her innocent and fanciful state of mind at the time. This included giving her first snowflakes a simple design. Her snow and ice patterns later become more intricate and complex when she is an adult. Co-effects supervisor Marlon West elaborated, "When Elsa finally lets go and really starts owning her magic, we wanted the ice and snow that she conjures up to get across the idea that Elsa has now grown up and become this beautiful, elegant, confident and powerful young woman." Her ice palace, which she creates while singing "Let It Go", was designed to illustrate the maturing of her powers as well as to be "a manifestation of her feelings to the world". The palace is initially beautiful; however, after she is made aware of the destruction she has inadvertently caused, and as she is increasingly vilified and hunted by others, it becomes darker and more distorted, with jagged icicles forming on the walls. The film's design team was uncertain about how it should look and drew out designs for various magical castles filled with snow. Lasseter suggested basing the structure and patterns on snowflakes. For example, an enormous snowflake would serve as the foundation, and the palace would be hexagon-shaped. Lasseter also wanted snowflake patterns to influence the manner in which Elsa creates the palace. "Snowflakes are these tiny little ice crystals that form in mid-air. And when there are changes intemperature and humidity, these snowflakes start growing in a pattern that's known as branching and plating," said co-effects supervisor Dale Mayeda."You know, when Elsa builds her ice palace, it would be so amazing if — every step of the way as this castle forms out of thin air — it's just branching and plating, branching and plating all along the way." Fifty animators worked on the scene in which the castle is built, and one frame required 30 hours to render. They later extended similar techniques to Elsa's clothing. While the traditional Norwegian rosemaling was the inspiration for her costuming early in the film, her ice gown was designed similarly to her palace, with snowflakes heavily influencing the style. Her cape itself is a large snowflake. Voicing Eva Bella and Spencer Lacey Ganus were cast to portray Elsa as a young child and as a teenager, respectively. Actress and singer Megan Mullally was originally cast to voice an adult Elsa, but she eventually left the project. She was replaced by Idina Menzel, a Broadway actress and singer best known for performing as Elphaba in Wicked. Menzel already knew Kristen Bell, who portrayed Anna, and had previously auditioned for a lead role in the 2010 Walt Disney film Tangled. She was not cast for the part, but the casting director recorded her singing and later showed the recording to Frozen's film executives. Menzel was surprised when she was subsequently asked to audition, and she received the role after reading the script out loud. In interviews, she acknowledged similarities between Elsa, her then-current role, and Elphaba, her previous role. Namely, she said, they were both very powerful and very misunderstood individuals. She further said that she related to the characters, having hidden her singing talent from her peers at school. "I didn't want to alienate anyone," she explained. "If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique." Director Chris Buck believed that Menzel's vocals would help in the portrayal of the character, saying, "Idina has a sense of vulnerability in her voice. She plays a very strong character, but someone who lives in fear—so we needed someone who could portray both sides of the character, and Idina was just amazing." Menzel was unaccustomed to working with animated films and being required to portray her character's feelings with her voice alone, though she did not find it particularly challenging. While recording, she was able to "play" with her voice, trying various tones to establish the ranges in Elsa's emotions. For example, Menzel wanted there to be a difference in the way she sounded from when she was being bold and from when she was angry. She would also physically restrict her hands from moving as she recorded the film's early scenes in order to project how her character was "so afraid to move and feel anything that it would come out and hurt people". During production, she and Jonathan Groff, who portrays Kristoff, went to the animation studio to explain to their animators how they were approaching their characters. Animators asked Menzel questions about her singing and closely watched her breathing in order to make the images of Elsa singing realistic. Her voice supplied inspiration for Elsa's most prominent song, "Let It Go". According to composer Robert Lopez, her vocal range was able to clearly convey Elsa's "low, vulnerable, fragile side" as well as her power and self-realization. Menzel commented that it was "an honor" to have the song and that she enjoyed recording it. "It's a collision of a bunch of forces that are all coming together in the right way," she explained. "The character, what she is singing and what she is experiencing; beautiful lyrics, beautiful melody and a little bit of me." Buck and Lee were also surprised by how compatible Menzel and Kristen Bell's voices were. At one point during a table read, they sang a ballad back and forth to one another with so much sentiment that it reportedly left everyone who was present with tears in their eyes. Subsequently, Lee wanted Menzel and Bell to be in the same room when they were recording the important emotional scenes of the film. "Let it Go'" Idina Menzel also received praise for her singing, with Amon Warmann of Cine Vue saying her voice "positively soars in these musical ballads". Reviewers frequently focused on her performance of "Let It Go", described by Entertainment Weekly's Marc Snetiker as "an incredible anthem of liberation" in which Elsa decides to no longer fear her powers. Various critics said that Menzel had been a "powerhouse" during the scene; Linda Barnard from The Star commented that Menzel "can shatter icicles with her powerful voice". Matt DeTruck of The Rochester City Newspaper wrote, "Menzel should be credited for providing as much power and passion to this performance as she did in her most famous role." Donald Clark of Irish Times added, "Elsa's flight to the glaciers triggers a song that, in its defiant paean to self-reliance, could play comfortably beside camp showtune anthems such as I Am What I Am and Don't Rain on My Parade. The opening and closing choruses of Let It Go end with a sly, spat-out refrain: 'The cold never bothered me anyway!' You go, girl." Nasim Asl of The Oxford Student continued, "Menzel, especially, steals the show with her performance of 'Let It Go'. Her Wicked-esque belting out works perfectly with such an incredible animated sequence – the building of the ice castle really demonstrates the prowess of Disney animation, and results in, arguably, one of the most spectacular power ballads seen by any animated character, ever."This song has also received the Award for best Song At the Oscars 2014! Awards In December 2013, Elsa and Anna were both nominated for Best Animated Female by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, with only Anna winning the award, a few weeks later.Elsa won all three awards out of three nominations at the 2013 Visual Effects Society Awards, including Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture, Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture for her ice palace, and Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture for her blizzard. Her signature song, "Let It Go", won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards and the Critics' Choice Awards, and also received Golden Globe Award, the Satellite Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, and the Houston Film Critics Society Award nominations. Designing and Characterization Process Following the casting of Idina Menzel, Elsa's characterization underwent several alterations. According to Menzel, she was originally scripted as a one-dimensional antagonist but was gradually revised as a more vulnerable, multifaceted figure . Menzel further described her character as "extremely complicated and misunderstood". Director Jennifer Lee stated that Elsa is largely driven by fear throughout the film, while Menzel added that she was also struggling with her potential to be "a strong, powerful, extraordinary woman".Executive producer and animator John Lasseter became very "protective of Elsa" and was adamant about portraying her in a more favorable, sympathetic light. Writer and director Jennifer Lee stated on Twitter that Elsa's body language and mannerisms were "intentional to show anxiety and depression". In July 2013, Disney released images of the film's main characters along with outlines of their roles in the story. Elsa received the following description: From the outside, Elsa looks poised, regal and reserved, but in reality, she lives in fear as she wrestles with a mighty secret—she was born with the power to create ice and snow. It's a beautiful ability, but also extremely dangerous. Haunted by the moment her magic nearly killed her younger sister Anna, Elsa has isolated herself, spending every waking minute trying to suppress her growing powers. Her mounting emotions trigger the magic, accidentally setting off an eternal winter that she can't stop. She fears she's becoming a monster and that no one, not even her sister,can help her. Producers identified the scene in which Elsa sings "Let It Go" as a pivotal point in the character's development. The scene depicts her choice to "let go" of her fear of using her powers. Character design supervisor Bill Schwab said, "Before 'Let It Go,' Elsa is really buttoned up, her hair is up—everything is perfect. During the song, she gives herself permission to be who she is and everything changes—her hair is more wild, her gown is magical. She's finally free—even if she is all alone." Animators designed Elsa's appearance to reflect her metamorphosis; in the beginning, she is shown primarily in restrictive and confining outfits.Menzel said that, after accepting her abilities, Elsa's appearance becomes "very vampy", continuing, "She's quite sexy for Disney, I have to say — they're pushing the limits there a little bit! But there's a gleam in her eye and a supermodel walk that goes with it and, for me, it was fun to be a blonde because I'm not in real life." he scene was also a pivotal point in the development of Elsa's character and was initially planned to depict her becoming evil. Robert Lopez, who composed the song with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, explained, "Elsa was going to go from being this perfect princess that had tried to keep her personality down her whole life to saying, 'Screw it. I'm gonna be me.'" They had wanted to use the song as a way to gain a better understanding of the character and what she would be like if she was no longer living in fear, which ultimately resulted in her becoming much more complex. The final lyrics and Menzel's "ability to be so fragile and vulnerable and then break into this powerhouse voice" turned the plot around and led to Elsa being revised as a "good" character. She initially attempts to suppress her powers in order to avoid hurting others, particularly Anna, and when she is no longer able to do so, she banishes herself from the kingdom to protect those around her. Lead writer Paul Briggs said that Anna's support is what Elsa needs most when her secret is exposed. "The strength of the family bond is what makes this story so powerful," he explained, "because it's her sibling who's willing to look beyond her powers and stand between her and the world if that's what it takes." Appearance Elsa's appearance had to be redesigned following her transition from antagonist to protagonist. She was originally drawn in a style similar to typical Disney villains, with blue skin and spiky black hair. A few month's after the film's release, animator Claire Keane published early concept art of Elsa that was modeled after the singer Amy Winehouse. At the time, she was imagined as having blue "bouffant" hair as well as "a deep, soulful voice and dramatic mood swings".33 Lasseter reportedly influenced the creation of the character's much softer final appearance, particularly in regards to her very thick blonde hair, which animators found difficult to design. Art director Michael Giaimo said that while a number of strategies were proposed for Elsa's hair, Lasseter would push the animation team to continue making improvements, saying, "It's not aspirational enough. We want people to feel like this hair is a beautiful statement." During a research trip, producers found that "there are lots of braids" worn by women in Norway; they then hired a stylist from New York named "Danilo" who helped to create a style that would reflect that while still being "a little different". A new animation program called Tonic was invented to assist with the task, and the character's hair ultimately required 400,000 CGI threads. By contrast, Anna was given roughly 140,000 hairs while Rapunzel from Tangled had only required 27,000 CGI threads for her hair. Disney Parks Anna and Elsa now have meet and greets at Disneyland as well as Disneyland Paris in the winter; they have been making appearances ahead of their movie's release. As of November 2, 2013, the sisters are currently doing daily meet-and-greet sessions in the Norway Pavilion of Epcot. In California, Anna and Elsa are featured in a new winter themed area of Fantasyland. Also, both princesses are now featured in Disneyland Paris' Disney Magic on Parade, on a float also featuring Olaf. On October 22, 2013, Anna and Elsa began early meet-and-greet sessions at Disney's Hollywood Studios, though this was temporary because their meet-and-greet location at the Norway Pavilion was unfinished at the time. In Disney California Adventure, Elsa makes a special appearance in Winter Dreams, the winter themed rendition of the nighttime spectacular World of Color. And during her appearance, she performs "Let it Go". In a similar role, Elsa appears in the Disneyland Paris spectacular, Disney Dreams!. Elsa is also featured in the Magic Kingdom show, Celebrate the Magic, performing "Let it Go". --- She is my favorite character and has reached hearts of many children worldwide. - Founder of This Wiki, Elsa Anderson. 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